The Sunday Mail
Sir: 18area.coms
CAPS UNITED are never short of nicknames: Shaisa Mufaro, Makepekepe, the Green Machine, Kepekepe Bhora or the recently coined Four Brothers.
Take your pick.
I am not sure if my vegetable-waving friends welcome the Four Brothers moniker but one thing Yours Truly is sure of is that that these are very difficult times for the Caps United faithful.
When DeMbare are winning and their team is losing, life can be a real burden for the green army.
The Four Brothers tag was coined – presumably by Dynamos supporters – in reference to the way Lloyd Chitembwe’s team shipped goals in fours in the Caf Champions League.
Makepekepe lost 2-4 in back-to-back matches against Al Ahli Tripoli, before ending their campaign with a 1-4 defeat to MC Alger of Algeria.
After the Caf Champions League exit talk among the green army was that the team was going to come back and explode on the domestic front as they defend their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League title.
However, such talk has vanished and has been replaced with an inquest into what is really going on at the champions.
The midweek defeat to How Mine and romours that goalie Edmore “ZiKeeper” Sibanda wants out of the club have put a damper on the Caps United camp.
A team that was supposed to be united in their bid to regain a ticket back into Africa’s premier club competition looks anything but.
The players seem not to be pulling their weight, missing gilt edged chances – like what Phineas Bhamusi did against How Mine – and defending as if conceding goals will earn them bonuses.
And when things are going south like this it may prudent to look at some of the decisions that Caps United have made in recent months.
Two calls, involving two central defenders, immediately beg for Yours Truly’s attention.
I still find it hard to believe that Sydney Linyama was not going to add value to a team that won last year’s league title on the final day.
Yes signing Super Sydo was always going to be risky given his littered record of misdemeanor but with Chitembwe a stickler for discipline it can be argued, strongly, that Linyama was going to toe the line.
Just look at how he has been doing his thing at Black Rhinos.
The second and most recent case is that of Dennis Dauda. Was it really necessary to offload him for a Facebook post that is open to a trillion interpretations?
The Caps United central defence has been leaking like a sieve and How Mine coach Kelvin Kaindu revealed how they exploited it to the maximum during the midweek fixture.
“They were vulnerable in central defence where their two central defenders were jittery and we capitalised on that,” said Kaindu after the 3-1 win.
Just to be clear the two central defenders in question are Justice Jangano and Carlton Munzambwa, two players who can never be better than Dauda even when combined.
A return of one win and four heavy defeats from the last five matches and anxiety over the Champions League bonus are having a negative effect on the Makepekepe dressing room.
And Chitembwe has to show what he is made of in such circumstances.
Quitting now is out of the option – he will be labelled a coward.
Chitembwe’s assistant coach Fungai “Tostao” Kwashi ran out of superlatives to describe his boss after Makepekepe had beaten Zamalek 3-1 at the National Sports Stadium.
“Like I always say Chitembwe is the best coach we have in the country, in Africa and in the world and today the result is not only for him and today the result is not only for him and Caps United but for Zimbabwe,” said the son of the iconic Steve “The Dude” Kwashi.
Time will tell if Chitembwe is indeed what Kwashi says he is, or if the Four Brothers nickname will stick.
Sir exits the scene!
Sir is a social media commentator and can be contacted on [email protected]
